PRESS RELEASE

In #LaborAgainstdeBlasio Twitter Campaign, Union Representing Nearly 50,000 Active and Retired NYC Police Officers Calls on Other Unions and Their Members to Stop Bolstering the Mayor’s Future Aspirations and Boycott His Political Events

The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of the City of New York (NYC PBA) today launched a sponsored social media campaign — directed at several hundred local and national labor unions and their members—calling on the unions to boycott Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political events due to the Mayor’s routine hypocrisy and anti-labor practices. The campaign, which begins this morning and will run on Twitter for the next 10 days, is the next step in the PBA’s ongoing strategy to build solidarity among labor and political leaders by demonstrating the allegedly “labor-friendly” Mayor’s true colors, which includes his administration’s bad-faith negotiation tactics as the PBA seeks a fair contract for New York City police officers.

The social media campaign, which follows letters sent last week to dozens of local and national labor and political leaders, will run the following sponsored content on Twitter to highlight the Mayor’s anti-labor record:

Is your union propping up the political aspirations of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, the anti-labor mayor? Read our letter calling on unions to boycott @BilldeBlasio's political events #LaborAgainstdeBlasio

NYC Mayor de Blasio raises campaign cash by saying he’s a "friend of labor," but negotiates in bad faith with NYC police officers, who are grossly underpaid. Read our letter calling on unions to boycott @BilldeBlasio's political events #LaborAgainstdeBlasio

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio tells his political donors he's “Fighting every day to make New York the fairest big city in America.” But his anti-labor practices show he’s all talk. Read our letter calling on unions to boycott @BilldeBlasio's political events #LaborAgainstdeBlasio

NYC PBA President Patrick J, Lynch said:

"Mayor de Blasio’s likes to promote his own future political aspirations by falsely claiming that he is a friend of labor. But his dismissive and hypocritical behavior towards his own workforce—especially at the bargaining table—reveals his true colors. Working New Yorkers are being told a fairy tale by this Mayor who only wants to use them as a political prop. With this campaign, we’re making sure our fellow union members know the whole story about de Blasio’s labor record, and calling on them to boycott his political events. He doesn’t deserve labor’s political support until he truly stands up for the workers who protect this city and keep it running.”

The PBA’s campaign seeks to highlight how de Blasio’s labor hypocrisy not only is hurting NYC police officers, but all City workers. The seven contract years negotiated so far by the de Blasio administration have brought city workers baseline raises of only 10%, which did not even keep pace with the 12% rate of inflation for the same period. To make matters worse, those increases have been further diminished by dramatic health care givebacks. In comparison, even Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg offered a minimum of 13% and 17.15% raises, respectively, for the first seven years of contracts they negotiated.

In the current bargaining round with police officers, Mayor de Blasio has continued to follow the corporate union-busting playbook, by once again offering below-inflation raises and seeking to slash health and pension benefits, cuts that would effectively wipe out the paltry wage increases PBA members would receive.